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SERMON 



PREACHED TO THE CONGREGATION 



(EriutJ fhnl Cijttrrjj, cDrtnhrr 31, 1852, 



TnE SABBATH AFTER THE INTERMENT OF 



HON. DANIEL WEBSTER. 



BY NEHEMIAH ADAMS, D.D. 

PASTOR OF ESSES STREET CHCRCH, BOSTON - . 



SECOND EDITION 




BOSTON: 

PRESS OF GEO. C. RAND, CORNIIILL, 
1852. 









Entered according to Act of Congress, in thi 

By 1 HOMAS J. I.I E and I l; \N< I- l 1 MEET, 
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District 1 I Massai 



CORRESPOX I) E XCE 



Boston, November 2, 1852. 
Reverend and Dear Sir: — 

At a meeting of the Young Men of the Essex Street Congregational Society, 
held in the Vestry on Monday evening, the first instant, the undersigned were 
appointed a committee to request of you, for publication, a copy of the discourse 
delivered by you, on Sabbath morning last, on the decease of the Hon. 
Daniel Webster. 

In performing this pleasant duty, allow us to express individually our earnest 
desire, that you will be pleased to comply with the urgent request of your 
young parishioners. 

It is our sincere prayer to our Heavenly Father, that you may be spared yet 
many years to your flock; and we assure you, that we shall at all times delight 
to assist and cheer you in your labors. 

Very truly and respectfully, 

THOMAS J. LEE, 
MILAN HULBERT, 
EDWARD P. DUTTON, 
FRANCIS V. EMERY, 
W. 11. BROUGHTON, 
To Rev. N. Adams. D.D. 



► Committee. 



To Messrs. Thomas J. Lee, 
Milan Huxbe&T, 
Edwaed P. Dutton, 

Francis F. Emery, 
Wm. R. Brougiitun, 

Committee of the Young Men of the Essex Street Society. 

My DEAB ]'i: i i:\hs : — 

In complying with your renewed request, and with solicitations from 

other members of our Society, to furnish a copy of my last Sabbath morning's 

Sermon for the press, I forego my personal preferences, and commit the 

manuscript to your disposal, for the private use of yourselves and friends. 

Very affectionately, 

Your Pastor and friend, 

N. ADAMS. 
Boston, JVov. G, 1852. 



NOTE BY THE COMMITTEE, TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



This Sermon was first printed for private distribution among the members 
of Rev. Dr. Adams' congregation. The edition having been exhausted, and 
many persons having expressed a desire to obtain the Sermon, the author 
has ! iii'lly permitted this second edition to be published. 
Deci mber 20, 1S52. 



SERMON. 



I SAMUEL XXV. 1. 

AND SAMUEL DIED : AXD ALL THE ISRAELITES WERE GATHERED TOGETHER, 
A>"D LAMENTED HIM, AND BURIED HIM IN HIS HOUSE AT RAMAH. 

The past week has been to this community a 
week of unparalleled interest. Since the death of 
Washington, the decease of no man has produced 
such an effect upon the hearts of the American 
people as that which is now the subject of public 
lamentation. The general grief is unaffected. Words 
and signs of sorrow do not, and cannot, increase it, 
but only serve to give it utterance. There is a depth 
of love in this grief which few men (indeed, a child 
might write them.) have ever occasioned. There is 
secret weeping, and sadness of heart, and feelings 
which can never be expressed. 

The origin and early history of this great man ; 
the first steps of his professional career, marked with 
such success and honors ; his statesmanship ; his 
great national services ; his power as an orator ; the 
unsurpassed excellence of his writings ; his influence 
as a public teacher; the wonderful combination, in his 
thoughts, of the explanatory and illustrative with 



6 



the sublime and elevating, gratifying the common 
apprehension with the consciousness of understanding 
him, and yet making us respect him in his 
unattainable power of statement and argument ; 
his failure to receive the nominal reward of our 
republican gratitude ; his death, succeeding rapidly 
the recent and final decision that he never should 
be the Chief Magistrate of the nation ; and the 
sublime and touching incidents of his last hours, 
combine to make this man the subject of an interest 
which falls short of idolatry by a less degree than 
that awakened by the decease of any excepting 
Moses, and Samuel, and the few, since their day, in 
the history of the old nations, and the very few of 
this young republic. 

Were the language of mere eulogy required or 
expected, the pulpit would not be the place, nor the 
Sabbath the time, nor ministers of the Gospel the 
men for such service. This great man is above all 
praise in all that made him truly great. There are 
some, but they are few, that can approach to describe 
or measure that greatness, who do not, thereby, 
place themselves in the position of men at the 
bottom of pictured pyramids or giant trees. 

But reflections which the most common mind Mill 
suggest in connection A\ith a ureal event, such as 
words cannot adequately express, not unfrequently 
convey instruction, and satiety the wish that labors 
to feel and speak upon the subject justly. By this 
thought, 1 am encouraged to contribute a humble 
offering, not to the memory of our distinguished 
friend, but, as becomes me better, to your reflections, 
in making a profitable use of our bereavement. 



7 
I. We have lost a great public benefactor. 

One of the distinguished blessings which the God 
of nations bestows upon a people in the persons 
of great and useful men, is taken aAvay. 

A truly great lawyer at the bar is an eminent 
blessing. The rights of persons and property find 
in him one of those great safeguards which free 
governments provide for us, — not in the arbitrary 
judgment, right or wrong, of a Sovereign, nor of 
the Judiciary, but in reason, employed to elicit truth 
and commend the cause on trial to the enlightened 
judgment of the community, whose sober, settled 
opinion is of the first importance in free states. A 
truly great and just lawyer, rising above artifice, 
and resting his cause on truth, is one whom the 
people of such countries as ours should honor and 
cherish as among the best defences of those private 
interests which make up the sum of public safety 
and happiness. Our departed friend was such a 
man. Whether defending chartered rights in behalf 
of a literary corporation ; or helping one of our 
towns to convict and punish the assassin ; or merchants 
to recover the insurance on their property; or the 
underwriters to defend themselves against fraud, lie 
has rendered invaluable services to his generation. 

He has finished his professional career, and his 
brethren, in doing homage to his talents and worth 
as a member of the bar, while they deepen our 
sorrow at the loss of him, comfort us, by the 
assurance which Ave have in them, that his example 
and infiuence not only survive, but will not be 
wholly without compeers. 



> 



Our nation has not lost a greater benefactor since 
the death of its founders. He has preserved us, 
under God, from foreign wars ; and when we say this, 
we say more than imagination can represent. There 
have been times during his various administration 
of affairs in which we have all felt as when we stand 
upon the deck of a powerful ship, with our eye upon 
the man at the wheel, and see how, by a skilful 
motion, he makes the ship pass more easily over a 
swelling billow, and go with safety over sunken 
rocks, where the dimpling waters reveal, to the 
experienced eye, the extremest peril. 

This man has done as much, by his various 
influence, for this union of great States, as any other 
since that " Farewell Address " was written, which he 
had so faithfully learned, and which he has taught us 
to consider. We look upon him, in this respect, as an 
instrument in the hands of God, who has not ceased, 
and, we trust, will not cease, to use him for this great 
purpose, to keep us as a nation from dismemberment. 
You will do me the justice to believe that I do not 
speak from party feeling, as I never have done here, 
when I express the belief that posterity, and not a 
very distant generation, will adjudge him to have 
been disinterested and patriotic in his compromise 
measures with relation in Slavery in the United States. 
Posterity will not look at those acts of his, as we do. 
in near connection with an elevation to the Chief 
Magistracy, but will have the advantage of distance 
in looking at other acts of his life to interpret his 
feelings and motives here. A man who spoke as he 
did to South Carolina and the South in his second 
speech in the Senate of the United States on 



Mr. Foot's resolutions, could not afterward have 
cringed to chaffer with her for her votes, falsifying 
the whole spirit and many of the principles of that 
speech, without doing a greater degree of violence, I 
will not say to his nature, hut, to human nature, than 
impartial judges will hereafter hclieve to have been 
possible. Nor will posterity, I venture to assert, 
suffer him long to lie under the imputation of seeking 
to aid and abet the system of slavery by any thing 
which he did in connection with the Fugitive Slave 
Law, whatever effect that law may have to perpetuate 
slavery. I do not seek to express an opinion here 
with regard to the exciting and controverted topics 
of the day, but to utter the strong convictions of my 
own mind with regard to the uprightness of this 
lamented public servant, in his connection with them. 
"Were I speaking, as I think I am not, to any who 
are politically his enemies on account of his influence 
in the re-enactment of a former statute relating; to 
domestic slavery, I would pray them, by the 
conciliating influences of his death, to consider this: 
Whether Mr. Webster, in dealing with this great 
moral and political evil, may not have regarded 
himself in some such position as that of Franklin 
when he provided the lightning conductors. The 
comparison does not admit of an extended application, 
and I do not wish to extend it, but merely to suggest, 
that Mr. AYebsters avowed principles and political 
services warrant the belief that, seeing the Xorth and 
the South marshaling their angry forces in the 
heavens over our heads, he sought to apply a means 
of protection and safety to the whole land, to save 
the country from events by which not only freemen, 

B 



10 



but slaves themselves, would be involved in calamities 
more direful, in his view, even than slavery. In these 
measures, I must express my persuasion, he acted 
from a disinterested love to his whole country, and 
did that which he considered essential to the highest 
good, whatever the result may be. I would not 
exaggerate his influence in keeping us from disunion, 
but, the sun that went down on the day of his funeral 
left this nation, still, the United States of America, 
and did not veil himself from the sight of " broken 
and dishonored fragments of a once glorious union ; 
States dissevered, discordant, belligerent ; a land 
rent with civil feuds and drenched in fraternal 
blood." * When our advocate for union uttered 
these words in the Senate of the United States, he 
did not know that God would make him, as we 
believe He has done, one of the principal instruments 
to fulfil, thus far, his own great wish, to answer his 
mighty prayer. May the benign influence of supreme 
love to God in Christ soon enable us to approach every 
subject of national difficulty with the spirit of peace 
and good will. And now, as wo sail away together 
in our national bark from the sea-girt tomb of our 
pilot, O that Ave might all agree, North. South. East, 
and West, to throw into the waves, as a sacrifice, 
our unkind feelings, our bitter words, on the subject 
• if American Slavery, hot the land have a Sabbath 
with regard to this subject, and lot that Sabbath ho 
the long, long days of our mourning for this groat 
patriot, our country's friend. I 

i - ■ i "ii Mr. Foot's Resolution, at the dose. 
t In confirmation of the conviotion expressed in the Foregoing paragraph, I 
will Btate tlio following anecdote: \ olergyman, well known to my i 



11 

II. We cannot but notice the hand of God in- 
appointing THIS DEATH JUST AT THE EVE OF THE 

Presidential election. 

After all, it is of very little consequence, in one 
point of view, who fill the thrones and seats of power 
in this world. The blessed and only Potentate has 
designs with regard to this nation, which we and the 
men of our choice will fulfil, in perfect ignorance, 
however, at the time, of the use which is made of us. 
The result of this next Presidential election will be 
hailed as the triumph of a party ; but they who look 
upon it from the world of light, where every thing is 
judged of in connection with God's great plan in 
human affairs, will see in it a step toward some 
important purpose in the mind of God, with whom 
the tumult of the people, in their elections and 
political victories, is like the measured tramp of a host 
obeying the word of command in a well appointed 
evolution. The past forbids any thing but hope and 
confidence in God with regard to our coming history ; 
but we are in the hands of One to whom a nation is 
an individual thing, to be preserved or broken, 
prospered or afflicted, in his merciful providence or 
righteous judgment. Foreign wars may await us ; 
entanglement with the concerns of other nations, 
either to our own hurt, if not perdition, or, to spread 

says, that having occasion not long since to meet Mr. Webster on some 
official business, the conversation turned upon the compromise measures, and Mr. 
Wel»ster*s connection with them. Mr. AYebster said, " It seemed to me at the 
time, that the country demanded the sacrifice of a human victim, and I saw 
no reason why the victim should not be myself." The clergyman -ays that 
Mr. W.'s manner minced such sincerity and deep patriotic disinterestedness, 
that he was moved to tears, which do nut cease to stmt at every recollection 
of the interview. 



12 



the principles of political freedom, and thus advance 
the kingdom of Christ. Measures may be taken 
to give the Roman Catholic influence a greater 
predominance here, or to fortify our institutions against 
it. Industry and the useful arts, inventions and 
discoveries, may be greatly stimulated or palsied; good 
morals and religion may receive countenance ; the 
righteous may flourish in the abundance of peace, or 
the wicked may walk on every side. There is no such 
thing as pause or rest in our destiny for years to come. 
For good or ill, we shall move round the orbit where 
the great Builders hand has launched us, either 
avoiding, by the help of that same hand, those 
bodies which cross our track, or receiving damage. 
Whatever happens to us, our rulers, our parties, our 
individual votes will have produced it, iustrumentally ; 
and will fulfil the decrees of the gnat God. We 
cannot doubt that the removal of our distinguished 
fellow citizen, just at this time, will have an important 
influence, but we know not how, upon the event of 
the coming election. He who knows times and 
seasons, (and the number of our months are with Him.) 
has ordered this decease in such a manner that its 
powerful effect is felt in season to influence the 
feelings, and the opinions, and the votes of so many, 
as will, perhaps, decide our political destiny tor another 
presidential term. We cannot tail to notice and to 
feel the power of this coincidence. This great man 
dies and goes to bis Long home. A Sabbath ensues. 
and the nation in her temples is weeping and praying 
over this greal decease. The week days resume their 
round, and twenty-three millions of people choose 
their rulers, and change their national administration. 



It is done in a day, but the end is with God. The 
hand of God is in this thing:, preparing the way for 
such a result as He shall choose. It was through 
the agency of another Daniel, in former days, that 
a heathen king was compelled to utter these words, 
which may instruct us, and appropriately dwell upon 
our hearts and upon our lips : — " And at the end of 
the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes 
unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto 
me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and 
honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion is 
an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from 
generation to generation ; and all the inhabitants 
of the earth are reputed as nothing; and he doeth 
according to his will in the army of heaven, and 
anions: the inhabitants of the earth ; and none can 
stay his hand, or say unto him, "What doest thou ? " 
Suppose that Mr. Webster had received the 
nomination for the presidency by the late Baltimore 
Convention, as many of us desired and expected. 
What a day the coming second of November would 
have been to one of the great political parties 
throughout the land. "What would they have done? 
What could they have done 1 ? Distracted with 
disappointment and sorrow, with no time for concerted 
action, their hearts would have melted, their knees 
would have smitten together, their faces would have 
gathered blackness. I speak to you who are members 
of that party, not as a politician, but as a believer 
in God's providence, and ask you to see the hand 
of God in your affairs. Could the Almighty have 
spoken to you with an audible voice at Baltimore, 
disclosing his purposes, He might have said to you 



14 



respecting this candidate : " Seeing his days are 
determined, the number of his months arc with me, 
I have appointed his bounds that he cannot pass, 
turn from him that he may rest, till he shall 
accomplish as an hireling his day.'" When you or 
your representatives were at Baltimore, God was 
there, and there were many devices in men's hearts ; 
" but the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand." 

The great fault of our age is, Low views of God. 
The Almighty has now readied down his hand ; 
He is almost as impressively present with us as he 
was when he stood on the top of Xebo. and called 
Moses thither to die, and Israel saw the form of 
their leader disappear into that presence which 
no man can see and live. Is this great departure, 
one week preceding an election, an accident? "Verily 
there is a God that ruleth in the earth ! " " Xot a 
sparrow falleth to the ground without Him." This 
great man, in the time and manner of his fall, was, 
in the purposes of God, of more value than many 
sparrows. May the fear of this ever present God 
fall on you, and his excellency make you afraid. 

III. The last DAYS and hoiks of this 

DISTINGUISHED MAN ARE EMINENTLY [NSTRUCTIVE. 

Jesus Christ and his religion disdain no man's 
love and advocacy, while they are beholden to no 
man for his acceptance of them. We should not 
rest our confidence in the Bible upon the opinions 
and feelings of men; still, we arc confirmed in our 
faith when wise and great men are oi' our opinion. 
[rreligion, sceptical opinions with regard to the 
Scriptures, transcendental views of Christ and the 



15 

Apostles, arc rebuked by the testimony of this 
pre-eminent human intellect. Modern unbelief had, 
in its own conceit, fixed a great stone at the door 
where it had buried our Saviour and his religion. 
God has raised up a man of your own city and 
people, whose countenance is, to you, like lightning, 
and he has rolled away that stone and sat upon it. 
As defenders of the credibility of the christian faith, 
we feel that henceforth our labors with some of our 
fellow men are greatly lessened. Spiritual religion 
cannot, indeed, be attested by any who are not 
themselves spiritually enlightened by the Holy Spirit ; 
but the evidences of Christianity can be appreciated 
by the human understanding, and have been 
maintained by the wisest and greatest of men in 
every age, whom, however, unbelievers regard only 
as professional writers, and employed advocates of 
religion. Now, God has raised up among us one 
to whose calling and to whose death-bed it did not 
belong, professionally, to assert the truth of the 
christian religion. He died in the firm belief that 
the Holy Scriptures are the word of God, and that 
there is salvation only through Jesus Christ. 

It is creditable to the state of the public conscience 
on the subject of religion, that, during the two or 
three days when it was known that Mr. Webster 
must die, the great concern seemed to be, to know 
something with respect to his religious preparation 
for death. Every thing which was reported on this 
point was read and remarked upon with no common 
interest. All wished and prayed that this beloved 
man might die the death of the righteous, and his last 
end be like his. And there is a general gratification 



16 



in the community at the serious feelings and religious 
expressions which gave character to his last hours. 
It is, then, an established truth among us, never more 
fully received or durably impressed upon the minds 
of all than now, that religion alone can prepare a 
man to meet his God and his judge. In many 
companies of a contidential nature, you have no 
doubt heard the question considered with the deepest 
kindness and tenderness. May we not hope that Mr. 
Webster is a true Christian \ His peculiar exposures 
to temptation, on the dangerous summit which he 
occupied before the country, and in the scenes of 
exciting interest through which, as a statesman and 
a politician, he was called to pass, and from the 
unmeasured admiration with which lie was surrounded, 
must have required more than unaided mortal strength 
to pass through them without delinquency. I low 
far he succeeded, or whether any of us, in his 
circumstances, would have needed more charity in 
the judgment of others concerning us, than he, it 
is not useful or suitable to inquire. Is there any 
thing in his writings, from first to last, that betrays 
a corrupt mind, a vicious imagination, or a disposition 
to trifle with serious thing- [ 

lie was in the habit of praying with his family, 
in doing which, surely no worldly motive could 
play its part. Great interest has been expressed to 
know how he spent the hours of the Sabbath, as 
indicating whether he had that spiritual mind which 
Loves the day. because it loves the God who made 
it. and the things which it is set to promote. We 
all know, without being told, that, like us. he was a 
sinner before God, and could not he saved lor being 



17 

a great man,- or an eloquent man, or a useful man; 
but, like Paul, must have been " found in Christ, not 
having his own righteousness, but the righteousness 
which is of God through faith." The same essential 
truths were as appropriate at his dying bed as they 
will be at yours ; it was needful for him, as for you, 
to repent and believe in Christ, "in whom we have 
redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of 
sins;" and when his spirit stood before his God, he 
left behind him, as he left his mortal part, every thing 
which could constitute a claim upon the divine favor, 
and only for his heartfelt trust in the Saviour of the 
world, could he, with the rest of the sinful race, be 
justified and saved. The throng of great and just 
men made perfect who w T ere moved at his coining, 
looked at him, not as some of them saw him on 
Plymouth Rock, and Bunker Hill, in the Senate 
chamber, and in the Court room, but, as a fallen son 
of Adam, who, by his sins, had, like other men, lost 
heaven; and the question there, and the only question, 
was, Has he accepted Jesus Christ as He was offered 
to him in the Gospel \ The gate was no more strait, 
nor the way more narrow, for him, to enter into life, nor 
was it a jot or tittle easier, or in any respect otherwise, 
than it is for you. For there is salvation in Christ 
for all, and not "in any other; for there is none 
other name under heaven given among men whereby 
Ave must be saved." 

He loved the christian religion. He loved and 
cherished the christian ministry; and the clergy 
throughout the christian world are indebted to him 
for his feelings and expressions with regard to them. 
They, in their turn, have loved and revered him in 
c 



18 



a measure not exceeded by their feelings toward 
any cotemporary. 

We all know that death enshrines every one who, 
by any exercise of hope, we can believe is saved; that 
great faults, and even known sins and bad habits, are 
regarded as atoned for by dying; the piteous looks and 
tones on the death bed being inconsistent, in our minds, 
with any thing but compassion and mercy. There is 
always much false theology lurking in affectionate or 
complaisant sentiments at such a time as this, and we 
must be careful not to contradict established truths, 
and our avowal of them, when we are under the 
influence of popular enthusiasm. If we declare our 
belief that a soul is saved, justice and kindness to 
ourselves and others demand that we rest our belief on 
scriptural reasons. Wo must not be deceived, nor 
deceive others, with regard to the conditions of pardon 
and salvation. There is not one Gospel for the living, 
and another for the dying. The warnings and 
threatenings, the promises and consolations, which 
you read in the Bible and hoar from the pulpit in 
your health and strength, arc as true, they are the 
same, when you are dying, as over. We say of our 
beloved friend that which you will say of each other, 
and of each of us, ministers of the Gospel: If he 
repented of his sins, and believed on the Saviour of 
the world, we, if we do the same shall meet him in 
heaven. If you feel sure thai be i^ safe, prepare to 
die with christian faith and hope; if you still inquire 
for more information, containing evidence to satisty 
you that he died a regenerated man. see that you 
yourself experience and do those things which you 
deem satisfactory evidence of acceptance with God 



19 

What a subject death found, when it approached 
him. How hard a task to conquer his life. Such a 
vitalized death, we seldom knew. He speaks, in the 

very act of dissolution, and says, " I still live." Could 
the king- of terrors have relented and trailed again his 
dart, this was the man for him to spare. Inexorable 
sentence! ''passed upon all men, for that all have 
sinned/ 1 "Who can claim or expect exemption now! 
Our Presidents, our Senators, our Counsellors, our 
Judges, our Ministers of the Gospel, the chief 
Captains, and the Kings of the earth, who slew all 
these] If sin destroys the body, if it defiles every 
thing honorable and beautiful in the outward man by 
death, what must its ravages be in the soul, which is 
its proper scat ! 

And now he has "lain still, and is quiet, and sleeps, 
and is at rest, with kings and counsellors of the earth, 
which built desolate places for themselves." "Who Mill 
be the President of the United States for the next four 
years, is a question whose interest with him has been 
absorbed, and, for the time, forgotten, in a question 
personal to himself, which has now been settled for 
eternity. He once made a public profession of his faith 
in Christ, before a christian Church in a New England 
village. That day and that transaction now seem 
more important to him, than this bawble, — the 
Presidential chair. Could he return, I cannot resist 
the conviction, he would think more of the Church of 
Christ, of its devotional privileges and opportunities. 
and the spread of the Gospel of Christ in the earth ; 
as no doubt all in heaven would, could they enjoy the 
privilege, which we still have, of living and of serving 
Christ in a world like this. 



20 



One thing even lie might find it hard to do ; and 
that is, to improve the moral tone, and the intellectual 
power and beauty, of his writings. He has left the 
world a rich legacy in his works, and if some one will 
add to them a volume of the eloquent and impressive 
words which his death has occasioned, and shall 
occasion, at the bar and in the assemblies of the 
nation, the measure of his ability to instruct the world 
will be full. 

His death makes us all love one another. It makes 
it easy for these hard, cold hearts of ours, which the 
world rifles of their affections, it makes it < -asy for 
them to show feeling and not be ashamed. We love 
those who, by their touching emblems of sorrow in 
their windows and places of business, have helped our 
weeping. Our country, if our sins do not prevent, 
will be more one country than before ; our Presidents 
will strive to rule over the whole nation, and not serve 
a party; our public men will remember that they must 
die, and live more like dying men. They called him, 
in the language of the great poet of nature, " the 
foremost man of all the world." ]!<• was the rearmost 
of an age in our history, which nothing but hope and 
cheerful trust in God prevents us from calling our 
<>-oldcn aire. The men who have conducted the 
country hitherto on her high career, are now all gone. 
Young men in professional life, see before you tin 1 path 
to honorable distinction and usefulness, and to the 
inevitable gratitude of a groat nation, at least at your 
decease, and to the attainment of a name which is more 
precious than rubies. Remember the testimony which 
this man has given you, that "the fear of the Lord 
is the beginning of wisdom." 



21 

In the borrowed language of this great orator, in 
Fanueil Hall, just after the receipt of some disastrous 
tidings in an election, we say, as Ave now return from 
burying him in his house in Raman, " All is not lost." 
Even he is not lost to us. His influence is ten-fold 
greater than ever. Who made this man, and gave him 
to this nation I Who is the Prince of the kings of 
the earth \ HE lays his right hand upon our nation, 
and says, " Fear not, I am the first and the last ; I am 
he that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive for 
evermore, and have the keys of hell and of death." 
This past week, in reading the works of this great 
man, and the beautiful and touching anecdotes of his 
earlv life, and the skilful and pathetic portraitures of 
his character, and seeing the tokens of the deepest 
universal sorrow which our land has felt for, at least, 
one generation, and in thinking of him now, in the 
house appointed for all living, I have felt the need of 
some man, some fellow man, whom I can love and not 
lose, as we have lost him. I " have found Him of 
whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, 
Jesus of Nazareth," " the same yesterday, to-day, and 
forever." "And his name shall be called," — and 
never more appropriately than now, — ' ; Wonderful, 
Counsellor, the Mighty God, the everlasting Father, 
the Prince of Peace." All that was great, beautiful, 
good, in this departed friend, was derived from Jesus 
Christ, by whom all things were created, whether they 
be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers. 
He Himself " is fairer than the children of men." 

In the declining sunlight of an October day, not long 
since, I saw the trees of the wood, beautiful in the 
melancholy change of their leaves, which a rising 



22 



wind was showering to the ground. The rays of the 
sun fell upon a tall pine of fresh and brilliant green; 
and wondering at it for a moment, as out of season, 
I was reminded that the evergreens put forth fresh 
spires in autumn, when the haves of other trees fall. 
As the evergreen never seems so beautiful and striking 
as when the other trees are stripped of their foliage, so 
when friends, and gnat and useful men, die, there is 
One, born for adversity, who makes even decay and 
desolation cheerful, in being, himself, the pledge of 
immortality, the Resurrection and the Life. 

Fellow citizens, fellow sinners, fellow travellers to 
eternity, love "Immanuel, God with us."' your Saviour 
and friend, witli the love and zeal with which you 
regard your great earthly brother and friend, and 
your interests for eternity are safe. Open the New 
Testament, read any chapter in the life of Christ, and 
you will find far more to love and praise, than in all 
the words and deeds of men. When our fellow coun- 
trymen shall love and worship Christ, according to the 
injunctions of the second Psalm, and. in consequence, 
shall be consistent members of christian Churches, in 
such numbers as to create a public religious sentiment, 
then the country Avill be safe. Then we can discuss 
and settle political and moral questions without 
danger or serious difficulty. Supreme love to Jesus 
Chrisl is not a mere frame of mind for private 
devotion, an experience pertinent only to the secret 
life of a believer; it must pervade the public mind, it 
musl influence the spirit and principles of the rulers 
and of the citizens. Lei no one say. '•This Ls too much 
to expect.' For is not this the religion foretold by 
Prophets as destined to be universal \ At the name of 



23 



Jesus is not every knee to bow, and every tongue to 
confess him to be Lord % Jesus Christ, upon whose 
head are many crowns, and at whose feet our 
Webster now sees that there is no crown, in earth 
or in heaven, that should not be laid, claims your 
supreme love. While you appreciate the excellence, 
and almost worship the memory, of one, who, after 
all, is only a nobler worm than you, remember 
that there is One who made you, and died for you, 
and will be your final Judge, who says, " He that 
loveth father or mother more than me, is not 
worthy of me, and he that loveth son or daughter 
more than me, is not worthy of me." This claim is 
either presumption, or, it implies infinite obligations 
on our part. This week has proved that men can love 
intensely. It has, in the same connection, witnessed an 
enforcement of those words ; " Cease ye from man 
whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherewith is he 
to be accounted of?" The Saviour of the world claims 
your highest and best affections. We will not be 
ashamed of Him, nor of his words, in the midst of 
this generation. We shall one day see Him coming 
in his glory, and all his holy angels with Him ; the 
small and great will be at his bar; He will "separate 
them one from another ; " his awards will have 
reference to their feelings and conduct toward Him. 
Remember, then, his commandment, and his gracious 
words: "If any man serve me, let iiim follow me; 

AND WHERE I AM, THERE SHALL ALSO SIT SERVANT BE; 

II ANY MAN SEHVE ME, HIM M1ALL MY FATHEB HONOR." 



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